


King of Rats, or King of Cats?

by GhostedArmy



Category: Thief (Video Game 2014), Thief (Video Games)
Genre: Cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 14:39:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7176023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostedArmy/pseuds/GhostedArmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrett finds a strange amulet, causing a cat to appear out of nowhere. He attempts to befriend it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King of Rats, or King of Cats?

**Author's Note:**

> It's v v v short

Moonlight highlighted the streets. Everything was washed in a pale blue, and a leather-clad thief stood outside of a window. He quickly made work of opening the window, and climbed through, surveying the area for guards or civilians. Upon finding no one, the thief stepped forward carefully, and heard the mechanism of a wall mounted dart trap whir to life. He quickly stepped back, a dart narrowly missing him and puncturing the wall to his left. Garrett blinked, focusing his vision until things seemingly lit up, and he followed the trail of red with his eyes. To his right was the dart chamber right next to a door. The wire went to the next room over, and Garrett blinked. The colors faded, and he put his ear to the door. He heard no voices, and no footsteps.  
Outside an owl hooted, and a few pots and pans clattered to the ground. He heard the sound of laughter, and the shattering of glass. A yowl cut through the night, before it was abruptly cut off.

“Thief!” A shriek echoed from outside, and he whirled around, ready to make his escape before realizing it wasn’t about him. A shout, a yell of pain, a gracious thank you. Garrett looked out the window to see a woman was thanking a guard while clutching her purse, and the guard was soaking in the praise. A man in dirty clothes had his hands tied together, and his shoulder had a dart in it.  
He turned his attention back to the door and the room in front of him. He opened the door carefully, and quickly found the box that controlled the trap. He quickly made work of the wire, and headed back to the original room. The trap on the floor, now useless, made no noise as he stepped over it. In front of him was a door, a cabinet, and a painting of a building on a lake. He put his hands to it. Fingers gently slid over the painting as Garrett’s hands moved to the side. The latch brushed his fingers and he pressed it. The painting slid upwards, revealing a safe.

Garrett picked the lock quickly, and pulled the safe door open. Inside sat a trinket made of gold, iron, emeralds, and jade. A human skull sat just beyond it.

“This is certainly priceless,” Garrett mumbled to himself as he grabbed out the trinket and the skull. He inspected the trinket, which was in the form of a cat. The jeweled eyes seemed to glow and shine unusually, and he felt mesmerized. He brought his hand closer to his face, as if he needed a closer look. The eyes flashed, and a moment later the door burst open and he was face to face with a guard. The guard made no sound, but drew his sword and swung for Garrett. Garrett dodged the attack and turned quickly to flee out the window. He made his way to the street below, and he caught the attention of several other people and guards. He ducked into a corner to hide, and the guards ran right past him. He waited a few moments until the footsteps grew faint and bolted for the way he came. He slipped past people, causing them to jump and scream. With the trinket and the skull in his hands, Garrett found himself unable to climb onto the tops of the buildings. He pulled down his mask before gripping the trinket between his teeth and used his now free hand to climb up a ladder.

“Shit, that was close,” he panted as he sat outside the clock tower. He caught his breath, and secured the skull to his hip before climbing the clock tower. He set the skull down on one of the desks next to his bed. He sat down on the mattress, the trinket in his hands as he admired it. Once again the eyes flashed, and bright red pain burst behind Garrett’s left eye. He brought his hand up to cradle it, and when he pulled his hand away, it was slick with blood. Garrett jumped, the trinket falling out of his hands and the blood vanishing the second contact was cut with the trinket. He stared in confusion at his hand, then down at the trinket. Reaching down to pick it up caused the blood to appear again, and he put it on his work table next to the skull. He sat back down, inspecting his hand. There was the scar from where the Thief-Taker General had shot him, and several other little scars from other battles and fights. But, even amongst those scars, there was no blood. He looked at the window, seeing the first golden clouds of dawn and decided that perhaps he should sleep on it, that he was just seeing things because he was tired. He would ask Basso what was going on with the trinket that night. His eyes closed and the ticking of the machinery lulled him to sleep.  
He awoke several hours later to something dropping and landing on the floor, with another thud after it. He opened his eyes, seeing a small, thin black and white cat picking up the trinket with care. Garrett quickly shot out of bed, startling the cat to run to a corner of the machinery and leaving the trinket on the ground. He picked up the trinket, dropping it again as his head started hurting. He grabbed a rag off of the desk, using that to pick up the trinket. He sighed in relief when there was no pain, and wrapped the trinket up. The window showed that it was dark outside, so Garrett climbed down the clock tower. He quickly headed over to the Crippled Burrick to meet up with Basso. He stepped in to see Basso with his head leaned against the wall.

“What’re you doing here so early, Garrett?” Basso asked, surprised.

“I got a trinket last night, it was locked in a safe with a human skull. I wondered if you had any knowledge of it.” Garrett pulled the trinket out of his pocket, setting it on Basso’s desk. Basso picked it up, looking at it.

“You wouldn’t happen to be having any symptoms, would you?”

“A pounding headache whenever I touch it. And there’s blood on my hand.”

“This amulet is one that was stolen from a local art gallery. It’s said to have an ancient curse on it. The gallery has a reward of twenty thousand gold coins. How about we sell it back to them?”

“Please get this thing away from me.” Garrett deadpanned. Basso chuckled and wrapped the amulet back up.

“Well, I don’t have any jobs for you right now, but if you stop by tomorrow, I’ll be sure to give you the reward money.” Garrett nodded, turning around and walking out. He wanted to work on his bow and his outfit. Plus, there was still that cat to worry about…  
The trip to the clock tower was short and uneventful, but when he climbed up to it, there was a dead crow on the floor. The cat lay a few feet from it, eyes glinting in candlelight. Garrett walked closer to it, and it bolted back to its corner from earlier. He heard a hiss as he grabbed the dead bird and tossed it out the window.

“What the hell do you want?” He said to the cat, who just gave him a hostile stare. He walked nearer to it, and it responded by raising its hackles. “I just want you out of here, it’s my hideout. Got that?” A hiss and a growl answered him. That cat had simple markings, with yellow eyes and a black face and a white muzzle and front. It was a tuxedo pattern, with little white feet and a long, lashing tail. He crouched down, reaching his hand out slowly. The cat hissed at him and lashed out, sinking its claws deep into his hand. It pulled his hand closer and bit it, clinging on tightly. Garrett yelled, pulling his other hand up to grab the cats scruff and tear it from his hand.

“Dammit! Shit, fuck! Get off me, you crazy beast!” The cat hung from his hand, a growl rumbling from its throat. He set it down and backed away from it, walking up the stairs to his worktable. He grabbed a rag, and wrapped it around his bleeding hand. He looked at the cat, glaring at it. The cat hissed at him. Garrett chose to ignore the cat for the next few hours, only watching as it hunted down a mouse and killed it.

The rest of the week passed in a similar manner as those few hours, with Garrett ignoring the cat and the cat hunting down rodents. On the last day of the week, Garrett had brought up some dried meat. He set it on the floor for the cat, watching as it slowly ate it. He reached down to give the cat yet another piece of it, and when the cat ducked its head to take it, he experimentally reached out and touched its head. It backed up, eying him warily. He put his hands up in a surrender and tried again. The cat flinched, but didn’t pull away this time. He pet its ears gently, putting another piece of dried meat on the floor.

“You’re not that bad, are you?” Garrett asked softly, gently scratching behind the cats ears. It started purring, butting its head to rub against Garret’s hand. He chuckled, petting its back. It meowed at him, leaning its head forward to steal the meat out of his hand. “Woah, hey little one, careful. Too much will make you sick. Now, what should I call you? You’re a little thief yourself, aren’t you?” He hummed as the cat started to wash itself. Garrett thought on it as the car groomed itself. “Hijack. I’ll call you Hijack.”

The next few days went on slowly, with Garrett going out during the night and sleeping during the day. Though, a few weeks after the cat got there the first time, he got home to find a mouse on his bed. The cat itself was curled up on his pillow, a few gold coins sitting next to the mouse. Garrett disposed of the mouse, then laid down. The cat meowed, and made its way over to curl up next to his neck. Maybe having a cat around wasn’t much bad luck. More of a good thing, in Garrett’s opinion.

Visiting Basso the day after that, he brought Hijack. The cat sat proudly on Garrett’s shoulder, as if it was a parrot, and Basso erupted with laughter when he saw them.

“Any news about that cat amulet? Or the curse? You never went in depth with it.” Garrett said, scratching under Hijack’s chin.

“The curse itself brings you bad luck, and hallucinations and pain. I guess whatever magic flowing through it went easy on you.” He gestured to Hijack. Garrett chuckled and left the Crippled Burrick, Hijack eventually jumping off of his shoulder and scampering into the dark.

The cat came back with a coin purse delicately tucked into its mouth, giving Garrett a playful growl as he tried to take it away. They went back to the clock tower, putting the coin purse in the corner of goods that Hijack had stolen. Garrett tugged off his leather, setting it down and crawling into bed, Hijack coming to curl up next to him.


End file.
